Black or minority ethnic (BME) teachers are still ‘significantly under-represented’ in schools across England, according to analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Figures obtained from the Department for Education (DfE) show that teachers are overwhelmingly white, with teachers ‘drastically less ethnically diverse than their pupils’.

The Bureau found that just 7.6 per cent of teachers in English state schools are not white, compared with almost 25 per cent of pupils, with 97 per cent of English state school headteachers being white.

The ratios were the worst in the North, with just 1.2 per cent of teachers being BME in the North East, compared to 7.8 per cent of pupils, and in the North West just 3.3 per cent of teachers are BME, compared to 17.8 per cent of pupils.

London had the largest proportion of BME teachers, with 26 per cent of teachers teachers from BME backgrounds in inner London, compared to 68.1 per cent of pupils, and 21.5 per cent BME teachers in outer London, compared to 53.3 per cent of pupils.

Responding to the findings, Chris Keates, general secretary of teachers union NASUWT said: “It is clearly unacceptable and it is also disgraceful. Education is such a powerful determiner of life chances. All children and people working within education should be treated with dignity and with access to equality. That clearly is not happening.”